If you’re left-handed, this is the day you will be most productive

In their review of 750 professionals, half of which were right-handed, the other half left, the authors found left-handers spent more time on social media.

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Southpaws make up about 10% of the general population. Most of us are aware of the supposed psychological differences between righties and lefties, like left-handed people using the right part of their brain more frequently, which is the part responsible for creative and verbal functions, but a new survey conducted by SimpleTexting offers some comparatively underreported contrasts.

In their review of 750 professionals, half of which were right-handed, the other half left, the authors found left-handers consistently spent more time on social media at work. Did you know that left-handed males tend to drink more coffee than right-handed ones? Or that left-handed women are particularly productive on Fridays?

Below Ladders dissects the most interesting productivity and behavioral habits determined by which hand you hold a pencil with.

The right idea

This new survey cosigns a wealth of independent research that suggests the small population of left-handers are indeed the more creative, irrespective of gender. Forty-two percent of right-handed women described themselves to be creatively minded, compared to 51% of left-handed women.

This polarity was much less dramatic among men, though it was still noted. Forty-six percent of right-handed men described themselves as creative, which is just 1% less than the left-handed men that described themselves this way. Right-handed individuals primarily perceived themselves to be more analytical.

A report published in The Creative Research Journal seems to think the creative edge that accompanies southpaws stems from having to adjust to a world that better accommodates right-handed people. Back in 2013, a team of psychiatrists from the University of Athens pitted a sample of left-handed and right-handed undergraduates against each other via two cognitive ability tests. Lefties, which more often utilize the right side of their brain outperformed righties on both tests. The authors of the study wrote, “The findings are considered to support the view that greater engagement of right-hemispheric resources facilitates the performance of higher-order functions that orchestrate cognition, such as mental flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory operations.”

No beans left

Left-handed men drink the most coffee by quite a significant margin. Sixteen percent have at least five cups a day, and 6% reported an average of six cups. Maybe this contributes to stats regarding overactivity. On balance, left-handers use social media a lot more at work than right-handers do. Most right-handers use social media for a max of 15 minutes per eight hour day, while left-handers tend to browse between 16 and 30 minutes on the clock.

Interestingly enough, left-handers and right-handers, go to bed around the same time (between 10 pm and 11 pm), although righties tend to wake up a little earlier (between 5 am and 6 am vs. 6 am to 7 am).

The distinctions only get weirder from there. For whatever reason, a sizeable portion of right-handed women felt that they were the least productive on Mondays, whereas right-handed men felt the least productive on Tuesdays. Neither hand persuasion was affected by Wednesday, though left-handed women and men got the most done on Fridays.